An FCT High Court sitting in Maitama on Thursday adjourned indefinitely the trial of Senator Dino Melaye, who is being tried for allegedly giving false information. NAN reports that Melaye, Senator representing Kogi West, was dragged to court on two counts bordering on giving false information, offences he denied committing.
Justice Olasumbo Goodluck had on Wednesday, adjourned until May 17, and ordered the defence counsel to take appropriate steps to explain the absence of the defendant in court. Goodluck, in her ruling on Thursday on a motion for adjournment by Mr. Ricky Tarfa (SAN), Melaye’s counsel, held that the prosecution did not doubt the health problem of the senator.
“From the gamut of the entire facts placed before the court, the prosecution did not controvert the fact that the defendant was in the National Hospital’s Intensive Care Unit.’’
The judge, therefore, adjourned the case sine die (indefinitely) pending the recovery of the senator from his illness.
Earlier, Tarfa, in an application to justify the senator’s absence, informed the court that his client was still lying critically ill at the National Hospital.
He tendered a medical report, signed by one Dr. Olaniran, Director of Medical Services at the National Hospital, Abuja, which confirmed that the senator was being managed at the ICU.
Tarfa urged the judge to consider the ill health of the lawmaker as a special circumstance that warranted his absence from trial. He urged the court to adjourn the trial pending the time his client would recuperate from the sickness, and be able to stand before the court to answer the two counts against him.
